Poems about National Art Museum of Sport art matched with paintings in Sporting Words

Poems written by eight Central Indiana poets who were inspired by paintings in the National Art Museum of Sport (NAMOS) are now on exhibit with the art.

The long-term exhibit is a follow-up to the Third National Gathering of Poets Laureate in June 2007, organized by Indiana’s 2002-2007 poet laureate, Joyce Brinkman, with the theme of “Sporting Words.”

Participating poets and the paintings that inspired them:

  Joyce Brinkman, Indianapolis – Frank V. Smith’s “Mallards Coming In”
  Ruthelen Burns, Carmel – Fay Moore’s “Ed Hahn in Action” (Squash)
  Phoenix Cole, Indianapolis – Donald Moss’s “Arthur Ashe”
  Barry Harris, Zionsville – Douglas Daniel’s “Larry Bird: Indiana Legend”
  Joe Heithaus, Greencastle – Mervin Honig’s “Usher at Shea Stadium, Queens”
  JL Kato, Indianapolis – Peter Helck’s “ Brighton 24-Hour Race 1909”
  James Murdock, Greentown – Germain G. Glidden’s “Study for Self-Portrait” (Squash)
  Michael Strosahl, Elwood – Tom Hill’s “Ecce Homo” (Boxing)

The Indiana Arts Commission hosted the poets laureate’s “Sporting Words” conference with the help of grants from the Efroymson Fund, a Central Indiana Community Fund, Lilly Endowment Inc., Cinergy Foundation, and other organizations and individuals.

 Growing the Legend –

Barry Harris

Shooting five hundred

free throws every dawn

at the Springs Valley gym,

the legend grows as corn does

in furrowed rows

coaxing itself from the ground.

A yellow-tasseled

corn stalk of a man

pushes himself

through the hoosier earth

of French Lick and Terre Haute

to Boston and back.

The legend knows

somewhere someone sometime

will be shooting five hundred

and one.